ACP Journal Club Archives|1 January 1994

Each ACP Journal Club article abstract is accompanied by a commentary from an expert in the field. Using common definitions, commentaries in ACP Journal Club are a combination of descriptive and explanatory statements of observation (about a study) tempered by opinions that may be interpreted as criticism. The commentator's tasks are to place the findings into the context of related research, identify any important scientific strengths or weaknesses of the study, and indicate the clinical application of the findings.

All abstracts in ACP Journal Club are derived from studies or reviews that meet explicit criteria for scientific merit. Commentators are selected, however, not by explicit criteria, but by their self-stated expertise, the editors' knowledge of them, and the editors' ratings of their performance on any previous commentaries they have done for ACP Journal Club.